A study recently released in Environmental Health Perspectives shows an increased risk of asthma among 9/11 workers.
A recent study shows that besides having an increased risk of sarcoidosis, World Trade Center rescue and recovery workers have 12 times the usual rate of new asthma cases triggered by airborne toxins.
Environmental Triggers
Autoimmune diseases are caused by a combination of environmental and genetic factors. Genes that predispose us to autoimmune disease occur in about 20 percent of the population. However, only a small number of predisposed people end up developing autoimmune disorders. When the incidence of an environmental trigger increases, the risk of developing autoimmune disorders increases.
Results of a study released on August 21, 2007 and published in Environmental Health Perspectives, show that 3.6 percent of the 25,000 rescue workers enrolled in the World Trade Center Health Registry developed asthma. This rate is 12 times higher than expected for adults in a similar time period.
The study’s findings also indicate that arriving soon after the building collapsed or working on the ground zero debris for a long period increased the workers’ risk of developing asthma. Workers exposed to the debris for 90 days or longer had a 7 percent increased rate of asthma, representing the highest rate of new asthma cases.
Respirator Use
In the first days after the World Trade Center attack, respirators were used infrequently and sporadically. Over time, as efforts for the Ground Zero cleanup increased, more workers used respirators. Workers using respirators on September 11th and 12th had a lower rate, 4.0 and 2.9 percent respectively than those who did not use respirators (6.3 percent rate of developing asthma). The longer period of time in which workers did not use respirators or masks, correlates with their higher rate of asthma.
